DeBruzkya watched the other man leave, realizing that giving the order had lifted his spirits. Leaning back in his chair, he drew on the cigar and let the rich smoke swirl around his tongue. With a bounty of one hundred thousand American dollars on her head, it wouldn’t take long to find her.
He glanced at the photograph and felt the familiar coil of need. Oh, yes. He would find her. When he did, he would convince her to write his autobiography just as she’d promised all those months ago. And when she was finished, if she didn’t agree to become his bride, to bear his children until he had the son he wanted, he would simply kill her.
Twilight hovered quietly over the forest. It was a magical time when the cool winds from the mountains to the north eased into the valleys and turned the air to crystal. When the songbirds from the highland meadows sang and received answering calls from their prospective mates.
Dusk was Lily’s favorite time of day. On evenings like this she liked to pack a snack of grapes, cheese and crusty bread and take Jack down to the stream for a picnic. Even though he wasn’t yet old enough to eat solid food, she would spread the pretty woven blanket on the grass, and they would play simple games and laugh at silly things and for a few short hours forget about all the worries in the world. Turning to take a final look at the cottage, Lily couldn’t help but wonder if those days were over for good. The thought brought a tinge of melancholy.
She slipped the straps of Jack’s carrier over her shoulders, hefted his little body against her abdomen and smiled at him. “We’re going to take a little hike, big guy,” she said.
“Gah!” Jack cried in answer, kicking his feet out on either side of her.
Laughing outright, she craned her neck forward and touched her nose to his. He looked so happy and healthy smiling at her she wanted to laugh. Robert had given him an oral iron supplement along with a vitamin B-12 shot earlier. While Jack hadn’t much liked being subjected to either of those things, his condition had improved in just a matter of hours.
“He looks good,” Robert said, coming up beside her.
Lily glanced at him. “He smiled a moment ago.”
“He made off with one of my boots this morning.”
“I noticed. I stopped him right before he dropped it into the commode.”
Robert chuckled. “I think the terrible-two phase may come a little early with him.”
Lily smiled at Jack, and her heart swelled with love. “As long as he’s healthy and happy. That’s all I care about.”
“The disease can be controlled. Researchers have made some breakthroughs in the last several years.”
“He’ll be able to live a normal life?”
“Aside from being sick a few times when I was young, I’ve led a completely normal life.” His gaze lingered on hers a moment too long.
When her cheeks heated, Lily turned quickly away. Of all the things she could have been thinking of, the kiss they’d shared the night before shouldn’t have been one of them. They were about to embark on a dangerous journey, yet here she was thinking of that kiss. Damn it, she wasn’t a schoolgirl. She was a grown woman with a sick child, a boatload of responsibilities and a very dangerous war raging all around her. How could she be thinking of something as inconsequential as a stolen kiss?
But Lily knew the answer. And while she may not like the route her thoughts had taken, she’d never fallen to lying to herself. There had been nothing inconsequential about that kiss. It meant something—to both of them, she was sure. Something that had absolutely nothing to do with the joining of lips and everything to do with unfinished business between a man and a woman who’d once been very much in love. A man and a woman who now shared the bond of a child.
Lily closed her eyes against the reality of that. She wasn’t an impulsive woman. It wasn’t like her to let a moment like that get out of control no matter how hot the kiss. But every time she looked at Robert she couldn’t help but think of those fleeting moments when she’d come apart in his arms. The way his mouth had covered hers, the way his hands had moved over her body, the heat of his caress when he’d touched her intimately. The answering call of her body when she’d peaked…
Good Lord, what had she been thinking letting him touch her like that?
What had happened between them was a mistake. A moment of poor judgment run amok. The result of high emotion and hot tempers and good old-fashioned lust. While the kiss had been erotic and moving and breathtaking, she couldn’t let it mean anything. She couldn’t let it make her remember the feelings she’d once had for him. She couldn’t let herself feel the loss of a future she’d once wanted desperately. She couldn’t let her attraction to him coax her into doing something irrevocable.
“How is Jack’s carrier working?”